Two Inspiring Evenings of Live Music
Courtesy of BBC Radio Three.
Inspiring but very different.
Last night (Saturday):
Richard Wagner's Parsival.
I would give the details of opera company and venue, etc., but have somehow lost my copy of The Radio Times! (The newspaper might list radio programmes by time and title but never gives any information.)
This tangled story of Mediaeval mysticism has the central character stumbling into a peculiar circle of knights keeping what they claim are the "Holy Grail" from Jesus' Last Supper, and the spear used to stab him in the Crucifixion. It's a tale of religiosity gone wrong, set to beautiful music.
Last Thursday (29th Oct.)
This was the far more significant, far more moving event.
It commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, Britain's worst connected with mining. A huge, over-steepened colliery slag-tip, lubricated by rain, slumped onto the village, destroying a row of houses and the primary school. Most of the 144 killed were children in that school.
Venue: Hoddinot Hall, Cardiff.
Ynysowen Male Voice Choir (which formed after the disaster), and the combined Aberfan Schools Choirs (Ynysowen Primary School, and Ysgol Gymraig Rhy y Grug).
BBC National Orchestra of Wales (conductor Timothy Redmond), BBC National Chorus of Wales,
Haydn: Symphony No. 44 in E minor, 1st movement.
Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C, 2nd mvt.
Vaughan Williams: Toward The Unknown Region
These were performed between two works by present-day composers:
Anna Clyn: This Moment (opened the concert).
Paul Mealor: Aberfan; From Darkness To Light. This musical setting of Grahame Davies' poem with narrative by Mark Lesley Jones and singing by the school choirs, received its World Premiere on the preceding Saturday, in Aberfan Community Centre.
Inspiring but very different.
Last night (Saturday):
Richard Wagner's Parsival.
I would give the details of opera company and venue, etc., but have somehow lost my copy of The Radio Times! (The newspaper might list radio programmes by time and title but never gives any information.)
This tangled story of Mediaeval mysticism has the central character stumbling into a peculiar circle of knights keeping what they claim are the "Holy Grail" from Jesus' Last Supper, and the spear used to stab him in the Crucifixion. It's a tale of religiosity gone wrong, set to beautiful music.
Last Thursday (29th Oct.)
This was the far more significant, far more moving event.
It commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, Britain's worst connected with mining. A huge, over-steepened colliery slag-tip, lubricated by rain, slumped onto the village, destroying a row of houses and the primary school. Most of the 144 killed were children in that school.
Venue: Hoddinot Hall, Cardiff.
Ynysowen Male Voice Choir (which formed after the disaster), and the combined Aberfan Schools Choirs (Ynysowen Primary School, and Ysgol Gymraig Rhy y Grug).
BBC National Orchestra of Wales (conductor Timothy Redmond), BBC National Chorus of Wales,
Haydn: Symphony No. 44 in E minor, 1st movement.
Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C, 2nd mvt.
Vaughan Williams: Toward The Unknown Region
These were performed between two works by present-day composers:
Anna Clyn: This Moment (opened the concert).
Paul Mealor: Aberfan; From Darkness To Light. This musical setting of Grahame Davies' poem with narrative by Mark Lesley Jones and singing by the school choirs, received its World Premiere on the preceding Saturday, in Aberfan Community Centre.
